Americans willing to pay to cut local greenhouse gas emissions

I imagine this news making folks in Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Exec. Ron Sims’ enviro offices absolutely giddy.

A national survey conducted in September found that “nearly three in four Americans would pay more for their own city or local government to do more to reduce the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming.”

Other findings:

* 71 percent would pay $5 a month more in property taxes to support a local subsidy to encourage homeowners to replace old furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, light bulbs and insulation.
* 69 percent would pay $8.50 more a month for local regulations requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
* 68 percent would support changing their city or town’s zoning rules to decrease suburban sprawl and concentrate new development near the town center.

The results are from two national phone surveys of 2,009 Americans ages 18 and over. The phone numbers were randomly generated and the data “were weighted to match national norms (derived from the Current Population Survey) on sex, age, region, and education.”

The surveys are a joint effort by GfK Roper Pubic Affairs & Media and scholars at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Nickels and Sims have been gleefully promoting their own programs for cutting greenhouse gases. Nickels most recently held a press conference to launch Seattle Climate Action Now. The event — held at the Seattle Aquarium — featured a scuba diver toting a “SCAN” sign swimming slowly through a giant fish tank.